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Danielle O'Brien and Greg Merriman reach second phase of ice dancing at Sochi

Mon 17 Feb 2014, 7:09 AM AEDT

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On to the next one ... Australians Danielle O'Brien and Greg Merriman impressed in their Olympic debut, reaching the second stage of the ice dance.

Getty Images: Matthew Stockman

Australia's ice-dancing pairing of Danielle O'Brien and Greg Merriman have qualified for the second phase of the competition in Sochi.

The Olympic debutants, the first Australians to compete in the discipline at Olympic level since 1988, scored a season's best 52.68 in the short-dance program at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

"It was a season's best score, and a season's best performance," O'Brien said.

"It felt great out there. Every time we did an element, it stuck and it hit perfectly," she added.

"I knew when we were doing it that it was one of our strongest performances. To have that confirmed by the mark and then to qualify ... wow.

"It's just the icing on the cake of 15 years of dreaming, hoping, waiting and wondering what it would be like. It's all of those things put together. It's the best experience ever."

With the top 20 pairs of the 24-strong field progressing, O'Brien, 24, and Merriman, 25, just snuck into the next round, finishing 20th - just 0.39 of a point ahead of Japan's Chris and Cathy Reed.

Meanwhile, at the pointy end of the field, two-time world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White set a new world-record score to move closer to giving the United States a first Olympic ice-dancing gold.

Davis, 27, and White, 26, skated a foxtrot and quickstep to "My Fair Lady" to lead reigning Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada by 2.56 points at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

The Americans, Olympic silver medallists in Vancouver four years ago, scored 78.89 points with the Canadians achieving 76.33 for their skate to "Dream a Little Dream", "Muskrat Ramble" and "Heaven".

Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov scored a personal best 73.04 for their skate to "Bei mir bist du schoen" and "Sixteen Tons", to put them third ahead of France's Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, 72.75.

Russians Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev scored 69.97 and are in fifth position going into Tuesday's free dance.